3 Ways To Land A Career Mentor When You Lack Connections, Clout, Or Even A Job

"If you feel a bit stagnant in your current role, or just want a way to learn the skills you'll need to get promoted or move up in your career, find a career mentor," Lifehacker advised this week. Okay then. That's all well and good, but what if you work in a company that offers a paucity of mentor material? Maybe you're working in a small business. Or maybe upper management is inaccessible to a lowly entry-level worker like you. Or maybe you aren't even working in the industry to which you aspire. If you're a barista who longs to be a literary agent, where the heck do you turn for help? For many young workers, the idea of finding a benevolent professional patron is out of the question. That said, there are still ways to glean valuable knowledge, attention and insight even when you lack direct access to power players:

Get clear on your expectations

Why do you want a mentor? If you're hoping to find someone who will take you under their wing, train you in their ways and install you in a prestigious position, consider joining the mafia or a biker gang. The odds of that happening another way are slim. If what you're looking for is insight on how someone got from A to B or how to emulate their skills in a particular area, that's much more easily accomplished. In the case of the former, you don't need to have a sit-down chat with Sheryl Sandberg or Richard Branson to learn the story of their success and for the latter, you can likely build those skills on your own, without taking tips from someone who is accomplished in that area. If you aspire to one day work for a record label, read everything you can about every music exec you can. Follow music industry professionals on Twitter and engage them in conversation, read their blogs, go to open mic nights and chat with performers about how they've worked to get signed. If you want to improve your public speaking skills, don't throw yourself at the mercy of Chuck from Marketing, who holds forth in every staff meeting like he's giving a soliloquy from Hamlet, enroll in Toastmasters. Take responsibility to go out and get the knowledge you need instead of waiting for a mentor to give it to you.

Prioritize replies over relationships

People are time-strapped and resource-poor these days. If you're working a 60-hour week and worried about the stability of your own job, the last thing you have the energy for is lavishing attention on a bright young thing who wants to pick your brain for the price of a latte. Instead of trying to establish deep relationships with those who have knowledge or accomplishments that you wish to benefit from, respect their limited bandwidth and approach them with a laser-focused question instead of an open-ended plea for help and a request that they give up some of their already limited time to regale you with tales from their career. I'm no Diane Sawyer, but I regularly get emails from college and high school students asking for advice on how to break into digital journalism. The ones most likely to get a useful reply are those that pose a concrete question (How did you come to write for Forbes?) vs. those that offer only a general SOS (How do I get into freelancing?). Figure out what you most want to know and hit up your preferred respondent with a targeted inquiry that they can answer during their coffee break. I guarantee you'll get a more helpful response than if you offered to buy them said coffee instead.

Go where the mentors are

Corner potential mentors in their natural habitat. Instead of trying to lure someone out of their office or insert yourself into a gap in their daily routine, figure out where people who have the knowledge and skills you want to absorb hang out en masse and show up there. If you want to learn the ins and outs of launching a successful startup, go to networking events for founders or sit in the audience of a pitch showcase. Interested in public health? Get a student pass to a conference on global strategies to prevent the spread of STIs in the developing world and use the lunch breaks to talk shop with your tablemates. I attended a breakfast event for entrepreneurs this week and out of the 25 people in the room, only one was a job seeker. He used his 60 seconds of intro time to talk about his skill set and interest in mobile apps and walked out of the event with a slew of business cards. Be that guy.